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Metadata for cbr files

Lukas H. 8 years ago • updated by Κωνσταντίνος Γεωργοκίτσος 8 years ago • 6

Hey,

I was wondering if anybody has a somewhat easy way to add metadata for Ubooquity in a .cbr container. Most solutions out there only work for .cbz.

Is using the ComicInfo.xml the only way to add metadata?

Does anybody know a tool that can create the ComicInfo File? The only way i could come up with is coping sections out of my ComicRack Database but thats very inconvinient.

Blaquity 8 years ago

I ran into this last week as well. I ended up just batch-converting all CBRs to CBZs using ComicRack. I did this by creating a smart list to show only CBRs based on the extension. I then selected all, right clicked, and exported as CBZ. ComicRack converted all files and automatically embedded the metadata.


There may be a better way, but this was pretty simple for me

Lukas H. 8 years ago

I was hoping i could get around that since i like the rar format much more than the zip format.

Rar just has the better set of features.

I found a programm called ComicsEditor thats supposed to do the job buts its only half done and doesnt realy work...

Under review
Tom 8 years ago

Ubooquity supports only ComicInfo.xml as metadata storage because this is the de facto standard.
Other metadata storage methods exist, but they are either impractical or supported by a very small number of applications.

Did you try ComicTagger (it is supposed to support Cbr writing provided you have the right external tools) ?


As for the Rar format itself, it may be superior to the Zip format (which is quite old and far from perfect), but for the sole purpose of storing images, I don't get why it has ever been used:


  • Rar format being proprietary, most software just can't modify Rar files (which involves recompressing them).
  • Even Rar uncompressing is not necessarily easy depending on the programming platform you are using: for instance, Ubooquity is using an unmaintained library (last update is 5 years old) because that's the only one available for Java.
  • Zip, on the other hand, is easily the most widely supported compression format, with many libraries to choose from in all programming languages
  • Rar superior features are irrelevant in the context of comics:
    • Compression efficiency doesn't matter: your archive contains already compressed files, the "compressed" file is only acting as a container, not as a way to reduce the overall file size.
    • Stronger encryption: no point in encrypting images inside a cbz/cbr file anyway.
    • Error recovery: it might have been useful in the early days of the Internet (I know, I was there), but it's useless nowadays.
  • Sometimes, when done by careless people, cbr files are compressed as solid archive, which are a performance nightmare when you have to extract a specific image from inside the archive.

For all these reasons, I don't understand why the cbr format is still used today (my guess is: pure inertia and habit).


Lukas H. 8 years ago

First of all thanks for your detailed answer :)

And i do agree that compression (especialy when we are talking about jpeg inside the archive) and encryption is pretty pointless for comic archive.

However i like the Error recovery, since the drive storing my comics isnt protected against bitrot. This 1% of recovery record makes me sleep better at night :)

Especialy if you cant detect the wrong bits in the first place and write them into your backup aswell...

ComicTagger spits out strange errors, seems to be something wrong with my Python installation or something.

Κωνσταντίνος Γεωργοκίτσος 8 years ago

Very detailed answer! I thought ComicTagger would be a nifty idea. I tried to install and run on Win10, but am giving up after ca. 2 hours of trial and error.

saucebarbeque 8 years ago

How about this?

https://github.com/fklingler/cbr2cbz

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